Chapter 23

Just as Ding De was about to put on a stern face and scold them again—

Ding Xiaodie and Ding Gui acted like they didn’t see him at all and just kept walking. The original host had been bullied by him many times, so now—who does he think he is?

“Hey, you…”

Ding De choked on his words and watched helplessly as they walked away. Unbelievable! The sun must be rising from the west today.

“Hey, Second Ding, did you see that? An old person in the house is like a treasure. Your mom’s siding with the third branch, and now even the third one’s got guts.”

“Exactly. Why don’t you bring your mom over and have her live with you instead?”

Some villagers who usually hung out with Ding De started teasing him.

Infuriated, Ding De cursed, “You want to raise her, go ahead! You can have another mom!”

“Hahaha!”

Everyone burst out laughing.

Jokes aside, it was time to get down to business. The families who finally agreed to stay behind—Ding De ran around organizing them and managed to gather eight households. These were all families with a bit of grain stored up.

But counting heads, there were only around twenty people, most of them with elderly or children. There weren’t many strong, able-bodied folks.

Ding Rong wasn’t satisfied with this. He had hoped at least half the village would agree to stay.

But even though he was unhappy, he didn’t say anything. He just let the second brother run wild—success or failure would ultimately fall on him anyway.

Meanwhile, Dabao and Erbao had caught wind of what was going on and hurried home to tell their father.

“Second Ding is convincing everyone to stay behind. So far, eight households have agreed.”

Laifu was sitting in the corner, smoking his pipe. He’d just eaten lotus root the day before and finally felt a bit stronger today. His thinking had also started to shift.

Seeing that he couldn’t get food for the villagers, whether they stayed or left—it was up to them now.

Erbao asked, “Dad, what do you think?”

Laifu took a heavy drag from his pipe and said, “Let them do what they want. Stay or leave, I can’t control them.”

Mrs. Yang, knowing her husband was troubled, shot her two sons a look to get them to say less.

At that moment, Ding Xiaodie and Ding Gui came by to share their plan to head into the mountains.

Dabao and Erbao were immediately interested.

“Xiaodie, let’s go with you!”

“Great! We actually came to invite you two.”

More people meant more strength. Besides, the two brothers weren’t outsiders. If they found food, splitting it with them would be fine. Right now, strong social ties were more important than the whole village.

The old matriarch adored Ding Xiaodie. When she came by, she pulled her into her arms and held her for a while.

Ding Xiaodie affectionately filled the old woman’s gourd bottle with water.

After they left for the mountain, the old woman took a sip. “This water… is sweet.”

In these times, drinking water usually came from muddy sources or tasted bitter. But this modern bottled water tasted fresh and sweet to them.

Seeing everyone’s skeptical faces, the old woman asked Yang to fetch a bowl and poured some out.

“Wow, this water’s so clear!”

“Looks like well water.”

They used to have a well in their hollow valley that also gave sweet water. But after the drought hit, it had been dry for a year now.

The old woman had everyone take a sip, and they were all surprised.

It tasted even better than the well water.

“But we haven’t seen even muddy pond water on the way here. Where did Xiaodie get such good water?” Laifu was confused. He cared most about water resources on this journey, and no one in the village had found any.

Mrs. Yang said, “Maybe she brought it with her from home and never drank it. Today, she saw her grandma and wanted to share.”

The old woman nodded deeply in agreement. “Xiaodie is such a kind child. May the heavens bless her.”

Just as they were talking, a fight broke out on the street outside.

The cause? The rotting corpses from the neighboring town stank too badly, and everyone wanted to claim the houses. Two families started fighting over it.

Don’t let their usually hungry and weak appearances fool you—once there’s a dispute, they fight like it’s life or death. Within moments, both sides were injured.

They started yelling for the village chief to come and resolve the matter.

Laifu had tried to stop people from wandering around and wasting energy earlier, but no one listened. Now look—when it came time to fight, they were all in.

Dragged out into the street, Laifu didn’t want to intervene at first, but seeing the two families brawling filled him with bitter frustration.

So he shouted, “Go ahead and fight! One less if one of you dies. I’ll even applaud! I’ve never seen such shameful behavior. Things have gotten this bad and you still can’t unite. Always afraid of getting the short end of the stick. Still think this is the village? You’re going to fight over a foot of farmland or a leaking pond?

Great, still holding onto those rotten village grudges? Keep arguing then!”

“…”

The two families were stunned.

They’d expected the village chief to settle the dispute—not scold both sides.

But the scolding hit home. Many people in the village who knew better quietly lowered their heads.

The truth was, the whole village was fleeing a famine, yet they kept fighting among themselves. Now that the chief had called them out, everyone felt a little embarrassed.

“What? Speechless now?” Laifu roared. “Good. Then let me say one more thing. Everyone go back to your homes and pack up. Once the sun sets and it’s cooler, we’ll leave.”

“Chief, where are we going?” someone asked.

“Follow the main road. If we stay here, we’ll all starve to death.”

After saying that, Laifu turned and went inside. The villagers on the street murmured amongst themselves, then reluctantly went back to prepare.

And during that time, some villagers started going to Ding De saying they’d decided to go with the group and no longer wanted to stay.

Then the second family, then the third…

No matter what Ding De said, they didn’t change their minds. The small group he’d managed to gather quickly fell apart.

When Ding Rong heard the news, he wasn’t even surprised. “Didn’t I say so? No one dares stay behind. In the end, we all have to follow the group. Sigh, forget it—go pack up.”

“But brother, we still have food. Do we really need to leave with them?”

“What good is food? If we run into bandits, with just you alone… you’ll lose your life.”

As soon as Ding Rong finished speaking, his body froze and his expression changed. “Did you hear that?”

“What sound?”

Seeing his brother so focused, Ding De held his breath and listened. “You’re right. There is a sound. It’s… hooves. Horse hooves!”

Clop clop clop!

A rapid clatter of hooves came from afar, echoing down the quiet street—instantly tightening everyone’s nerves.